Contents

Ralph H. Baer and Howard J. Morrison[1] were first introduced to Atari’s game Touch Me at the Music Operators of America (MOA) trade show in 1976.[2] Baer said of the product, “Nice gameplay. Terrible execution. Visually boring. Miserable, rasping sounds.”[2] The original prototype, built by Baer, included the Texas InstrumentsTMS 1000microprocessor chip, which was low cost and used by many games of the 1970s. Lenny Cope,[2] who was one of Ralph H. Baer’s partners, worked on the programming code for the core of the game, titled Follow Me at the time. Baer developed the tones of the game, inspired by the notes of a bugle. It was when they pitched the demo, an 8-inch-by-8-inch console, to the Milton Bradley Company that the name of the game was changed to Simon. Simon debuted in 1978 at the cost of $24.95 (equivalent to $90 in 2015) and became one of the top selling toys that Christmas.[2]

Since 2013, KID Group now owns the rights to Simon and Hasbro manufacture Simon games. Dan Klistner, the inventor of Bop It, released Simon Swipe in 2014 which has touch screen input and four games which are called Levels, Classic Simon, Multiplayer and Extreme Simon. [3]

The device has four colored buttons, each producing a particular tone when it is pressed or activated by the device. A round in the game consists of the device lighting up one or more buttons in a random order, after which the player must reproduce that order by pressing the buttons. As the game progresses, the number of buttons to be pressed increases. The US patent for this game, Pat No. 4,207,087 was obtained in 1980 by patent counsel for Marvin Glass and Associates, Robert J. Schneider, a managing partner with the firm of Mason, Kolehmainen, Rathburn and Wyss. Mr. Schneider’s partner at the firm, noted electrical engineer and patent attorney, Stanley Tomsa drafted and prosecuted the patent application which resulted as Pat No. 4,207,087. Mr. Schneider also procured US Design Pat. No 253,786 for the game housing which was invented by Douglas Montague, a designer at Marvin Glass and Associates. Mr. Schneider is currently Co-Chair of the Intellectual Property Department of Taft, Stettinius & Hollister LLP.[4] Stanley Tomsa’s son Michael Tomsa is currently a patent attorney at Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP

Simon is named for the simple children's game of Simon Says, but the gameplay is based on Atari's unpopular Touch Me arcade game from 1974. Simon differs from Touch Me in that the Touch Me buttons were all the same color (black) and the sounds it produced were harsh and grating.

Simon's tones, on the other hand, were designed to always be harmonic,[2] no matter what order they were played in, and consisted of an A major triad in second inversion which resembles a Trumpet fanfare:

Simon was later re-released by Milton Bradley – now owned by Hasbro – in its original circular form, though with a translucent case rather than plain black. It was also sold as a two-sided Simon Squared version, with the reverse side having eight buttons for head-to-head play, and as a keychain (officially licensed by Fun4All) with simplified gameplay (only having Game 1, Difficulty 4 available). Other variations of the original game, no longer produced, include Pocket Simon and the eight-button Super Simon, both from 1980. Finally, Nelsonic released an official wristwatch version of Simon.[5]

Later versions of the game being sold include a pocket version of the original game in a smaller, yellow, oval-shaped case; Simon Trickster, which plays the original game as well as variations where the colors shift around from button to button (Simon Bounce), where the buttons have no colors at all (Simon Surprise), or where the player must repeat the sequence backwards (Simon Rewind);[6] and a pocket version of Simon Trickster.

As a popular game, Simon inspired many imitators and knockoffs. Most notably, Atari released a handheld version of Touch Me in 1978, with multicolored buttons and pleasant musical tones. Despite being named for their older arcade game, the handheld Touch Me contained Simon's three game variations and four difficulty levels, albeit with limits of eight, 16, 32, and 99 instead of eight, 14, 20 and 31. Even its button layout mirrored Simon's, with blue in the upper-left, yellow in the upper-right, red in the lower-left, and green in the lower-right, the same layout as Simon turned upside-down. Its only unique features were a LED score display, similar to the one its arcade counterpart had, and its small size, similar to a pocket calculator.

Other clones include:

A Simon clone called Monkey See, Monkey Do which featured a similar casing as that of Simon, except that the buttons were oval-shaped.

Tiger Electronics' Copy Cat in 1979, re-released with a transparent case in 1988 and used buzzers.

another DIY version called Electronic Memory Game based on ARM Cortex microcontrollers [8]

The "Game A" mode of the second game in the Game & Watch handheld series, Flagman (Silver, 5th Jun 1980). "Game B" is the same, but doesn't play in a sequence, while the player has a limited time to press the corresponding number lit up.

Some versions of the game have tones that play as long as you push the button down. Others have a constant time of the sound. Other versions feature audio themes: animals (cat/dog/pig/cow), xylophone, football, galaxy (space sounds), some of which (animals, football) make the game easier to play. Yet others can have sound on/off setting, making the game harder by relying just on visual cues.

The 1982 short story "The Cyphertone" by S. C. Sykes features a game that is similar to Simon.

In the 1987 Stephen King's novel "The Tommyknockers", a forgotten SIMON game, left in the back seat of a reporters car, activates itself and, in an ever accelerated color switching frenzy, overheats and melts its casing, scorching the seat beneath. The driver, surprised by this, knocks it to the floor before the whole thing goes up in flames.

In the 2009 film Accidents Happen, Doug Post is playing Simon while lying in bed in his room, just before Billy Conway enters and talks him into sneaking out to visit Billy's brother Gene at the care center.

Simon appeared on It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia in the episode "A Very Sunny Christmas", during which Mac finds the game in his closet and Charlie finds the game extremely difficult.

Simon appeared on an episode of Little Miss Gamer as her portable gaming system. It caused her to meet Tom Green and Blackwolf the Dragon Master.

The Nickelodeon game show Think Fast! had several events that were played like Simon. One of those events was called "Paint Catcher" where players threw colored paint filled balloons(green, red, blue and yellow) at their partners who were dressed as baseball catchers to make a chain, adding a color at the end of each chain.

The COSI Columbus exhibition area Adventure features an interactive puzzle that recreates Simon. A statue named Cymon challenges guests to repeat five flashing patterns to reveal a clue.